One of the things I want to do in this space is to occasionally give you an inside view of how magazines are made. Today, I will give a glimpse of why our print mag comes out only twice a year (1982 was the last time we came out more often), since it’s a question I am frequently asked by readers.

I thought that taking my music to ‘market’ would somehow destroy the freedom of expression I found by playing it in more informal settings. I was out there in the park busking more to meet girls than to make money.

I start to imagine that every city, town, or village has so many of these unknown bands in their past, present, and future: bands without the ambition or resources it takes to “make it big” (or even semi-big), yet whose music meant so much to their fans.

We’ve begun a “25th Anniversary” sale on our Big Takeover Secure Online Store. Buy three back issues get one free. (Or buy four and get a CD or t-shirt for free.) Limited time offer, get it today! But both the anniversary and the sale remind that neither that milestone nor its attendant celebration would have been possible were it not for one person in particular: SHIRLEY SEXTON, our webmistress emeritus.

Don’t let the record labels fool you. Thanks to the Internet there are more possibilities for musicians to prosper than ever before.

Today concludes my countdown of my top picks for the year 2005 in this space, with brief comments on each. I hope you’ve enjoyed these lists—sometimes we’re so preoccupied with the latest releases in the in-box (I could already make a strong list for 2006 based on January and February releases and the advance copies I have for March and April!!!), that we need some kind of reminder to play ‘old’ music that was only released anywhere between 2-to-14 months ago. Hope this has inspired some of that. Enjoy!

I am continuing with my countdown of my top picks for the year 2005, with brief comments on each. Having done all the new recordings 60-1, and then 40-1 for Old Recordings/Retrospectives, here’s my Top 10 selections for music DVDs (a new category this year, now that they’ve become so prevalent)!!!

I’m still counting down my top picks for the year 2005 in this space, with brief comments on each. Having done all the new recordings 60-1, and last week 40-21 for Old Recordings/Retrospectives, here’s 20-1 for Old Recordings/Retrospectives!!! After all, why should old recordings have to compete with the new work of artists? Note, now that this list is finished, that’s 100 Top CDs for 2005. For all the same old perennial moaning, 2005 was another brilliant year for music, same as every year, and don’t let some stupid aging critic or hipster gone jaded tell you different!

There is a great untold history of eyebrow-less people in rock ‘n’ roll, and it’s time that their hairless brow bones were noticed.

I’m still counting down my top picks for the year 2005 in this space, with brief comments on each. Having done all the new recordings in the last three entries, here’s 40-21 for Old Recordings/Retrospectives!!! After all, why should old recordings have to compete with the new work of artists? Note, when this list is finished, that will be 100 Top CDs for 2005. For all the same old perennial moaning, 2005 was another brilliant year for music, same as every year, and don’t let some stupid aging critic or hipster gone jaded tell you different! Enjoy!

I’m still counting down my top picks for the year 2005 in this space, with brief comments on each. Having done 40-21 last time, here’s (drum roll please!!!) 20-1!!! (Again, there will be four categories: New Recordings, Old Recordings / Retrospectives, Singles, and Music DVDS. Enjoy!)

What I find interesting is that in the Visual Kei scene the ‘rules and regulations’ that bind American bands today are seemingly nonexistent.

Isn’t it more useful to read a list of 10 albums that you’ve never heard of than to read one more list of the same 10 albums that you already know are supposed to be ‘important’?

I’m still counting down my top picks for the year 2005 in this space, with brief comments on each. Having done 60-41 last time, here’s 40-21!!! (Again, there will be four categories: New Recordings, Old Recordings/Retrospectives, Singles, and Music DVDS.) Enjoy!

Repetition isn’t always a sign of being stuck in a rut. Sometimes it’s the mark of someone who has built his or her own distinctive musical world and is working within it.

I’m going to be counting down my top picks for the year 2005 in this space, with brief commentary on most of them. There will be four categories: New Recordings, Old Recordings / Retrospectives, Singles, and Music DVDS. Enjoy!

You hoist another CAN, scarf down more CAKE, and now suffer indigestion and CRAMPS from too much LAMBCHOP and an excess of RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS.

How much music can one person listen to? Sometimes I feel like I’m testing that boundary.

Thirty years on, some of punk rock’s greatest are still going strong. Here’s why a combined DAMNED / STRANGLERS / BUZZCOCKS / STIFF LITTLE FINGERS tour could be a hit.

Ah, the mysterious DAVID STEIN, our co-founder often mentioned in our magazine, seemingly for one fleeting act 25 years ago (he only lasted that first issue)! Yet everyone should have a David Stein in his or her life growing up. Let me explain.

As a reader pointed out in a comment on the first part of my look back at 2005, it’s been a good year for historical material.

In my last blog, I spoke about the death (tragic suicide, age 39) last December of someone who I admired and knew, someone who wasn’t well known outside of underground Canadian rock circles and his home Montreal. But ALEX SORIA (1966-2004), leader of THE NILS, was one of the great singer/songwriters of the 1980s. Here’s the conclusion of that memorial, including part two of CAROLINE EVANS’ thoughtful feature.

Is it so brilliant and sophisticated that it requires numerous spins? Or is it just another way of saying “I really want to love this album—but don’t”?

“In the ‘80s, they were one of Canada’s most promising rock bands. Their first EP was produced by MEN WITHOUT HATS’ STEFAN DOROSCUK and BOB MOULD’s mother used to send them cookies. So how come you’ve never heard of THE NILS?”—Caroline Evans

Record companies want flexible pricing for songs sold on the iTunes store but Apple’s STEVE JOBS insists on keeping them at 99 cents a pop. Who’s right?

It’s safe to compile best-of-the-year lists, since nothing in December will bump any picks down. The more conscientious list-makers relisten to favorites from earlier in the year to see if they’ve held up. Here are a few I’ve enjoyed reacquainting myself with.

Motherf***er is the best ongoing dark and decadent R&R dance party that I’ve been to since moving to NYC in 2001. I attended my first one the first week I arrived, and I’ve tried to go to each one since.

I’ll be writing about music from the context of working at Sound Fix, an independent record store in Williamsburg (Brooklyn, NY).

I suppose I have some explaining to do, since this is my first post. So here’s the low down. As soon as I heard The Big Takeover was letting some of its writer’s have blogs, I knew I had to take a stab at it.

The Big Takeover has long done an excellent job of calling attention to unsung and underappreciated music and my blog aims to continue that tradition…

Technology is a strange thing. When we founded The Big Takeover in 1980, I’d never even seen a copy shop let alone a Xerox machine, with the exception of the one at my local public library. (And for a dime, it would spit out a poor-quality copy in around 40-50 seconds. You could actually hear the gears cranking and see the light beam going back and forth six times over the sloped glass underneath the leather cover per one image. And yes, our mag first “sprang,” err, lurched, to life on that dang thing, via 100 copies of a single typed page that took freaking forever to complete.)

I’m very excited to be writing for the online version of The Big Takeover since I believe that we should have an online presence that rivals sites that post new items daily, like Pitchfork.